Brocade ICX product family extends SDN support with new OpenFlow 1.3 switches

Bangkok – April 9, 2015 – Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD)today announced new innovations to its campus Local Area Network (LAN)switch family to help organizations realize the vision of The Effortless Network® and build the foundation for the New IP.

The new Brocade® ICX® 7250 switch delivers the industry’shighest10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) port density for any switch in its class to address the onslaught of user video and wireless traffic that is taxing campus networks.

Brocade also unveiled Switch Port Extender, a new HyperEdge® Architecture technology, designed to simplify network deployment and ongoing maintenance. Through added automation, this technology enables shared network services and management between Brocade ICX 7250, 7450, and 7750 switches distributed across the campus.

A leader in software defined networking (SDN), Brocade also extended OpenFlow 1.3 support to Brocade ICX 7450and 7750 switches to enable SDN solutions in LAN architectures. Combined with the Brocade Vyatta®Controller, these switches give customers a way to begin realizing the possibilities of SDN automation.

Campus networks at hospitals, for example, are evolving rapidly to integrate new clinical and emergency room applications, while supporting more mobile doctor-patient devices than ever before. As a result, these hospitals need a network that is adaptable and flexible.

“The Brocade ICX 7750 and 7450network switches help us better support one million patient visits each year,” said Dan Brewer, senior manager for IT, CoxHealth in Springfield, MO.“We’re looking forward to the new Brocade ICX 7250 switch to provide access for other clinical applications, extend our connectivity options, and continue to run the region’s most efficient patient-first healthcare campus network.”

Brocade directly addresses these issues with its new campus switches and SDN enhancements. The complete family of hardware and software solutions is designed for flexible scalability, simplified management, and open standards-based interoperability in multivendor best-in-class networks.

The Brocade ICX switch family is certified with the OpenDaylight-basedBrocade Vyatta Controller and will support other OpenDaylight-compliant controllers.

Supporting Quotes

“A recent IDC survey of enterprise networking professionals showed that network provisioning and operational agility was the most cited primary motivation for either considering or implementing SDN solutions in both the datacenter and the campus. Brocade’s end-to-end delivery of software networking stack elements including OpenFlow 1.3 Hybrid Port Mode support on its ICX campus LAN portfolio demonstrates the growing traction of SDN across the network.”– Nolan Greene, research analyst, Network Infrastructure, IDC.

“OpenFlow in the campus network sets the stage for better use of technology in the San Leandro Unified School District. We already virtualized a large portion our network, and we are heading in the direction of software defined networking. The expanded OpenFlow 1.3 support on the Brocade ICX 7750 and 7450 switches will help us improve flexibility, and enables us to future-proof our network.” – Mike McLaughlin, Ed.D. Superintendent, San Leandro Unified School District

“As a Brocade APN Elite Partner, we’ve had a lot of success delivering solutions with Brocade’s HyperEdge Architecture Mixed Stacking technology to simplify, automate, and future-proof our customer campus networks. We are very excited about the new Switch Port Extender technology as it will allow us to continue delivering automation with even more powerful and scalable Brocade ICX network solutions for our customers.”– John O’Shea, President, Vology, Inc.

Pricing and Availability

General availability for the Brocade ICX 7250 begins this month with a list price starting at $2,000.

The initial release of Switch Port Extender is planned for late 2015 and will support Brocade ICX 7750 and 7450 mixed domains. Future releases will include support for all Brocade ICX 7250, 7450, and 7750 switches.

The Brocade ICX 7450 and 7750 OpenFlow 1.3 implementations are available this month and will support standalone mode initially, with full stacking support to follow in a future software release.

About Brocade

Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) networking solutions help the world’s leading organizations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. (www.brocade.com)

ADX, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, HyperEdge, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade, OpenScript, The Effortless Network, VCS, VDX, Vplane, and Vyatta are registered trademarks, and Fabric Vision and vADX are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may be trademarks of others.